Published at 17th of August 2019 11:51 am

Volume 22, Afterword

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Long time no see everyone, it's the author Takehaya. This time I have delivered Volume 22. I wonder if you all have 24 (25 if you have the anime bonus) volumes lined up on your bookshelves? As the first volume was released in February of 2009, this volume marks that seven years have passed. Thinking that people who bought the first volume in middle school have already begun their adult life is a strange feeling. As we enter the eighth year with this volume, I will continue to work hard to make sure that everyone can enjoy this series.

Now then, as for the contents of this volume, we follow the events of Koutarou and the others who fell to the planet of Alaia in the previous volume. There are enemies all over on the surface, but they have to escape the encirclement somehow. The story progresses as they come across unexpected encounters and events along the way.

A slight problem this volume is Forthorthe's pet situation. Are there cats and dogs on Forthorthe like there are on Earth? As the humans are almost the exact same, we already know that mammals exist. That only leaves the problem of whether they evolved to become like cats and dogs.

Unlike Theia's worries regarding humans, there is no need for cats and dogs to be exactly the same. They only needed to look roughly the same. For example, a Bulldog and a Shiba dog are the same species, but they look very different. So a difference of that level is acceptable. There's no need for breeding to be possible between them. Compared to Theia's worries, the conditions are looser.

There was no doubt that Earth and Forthorthe had a similar environment. That leaves the only problem of whether or not similar creatures would arise from similar environments. In this regard, there is already an example on Earth. Long ago, separated by continents, there are traces of creatures that evolved on their own, and ended up looking very similar. Mammals and marsupials are like that. While they are on completely different places on the evolutionary tree, there are several creatures that look the same. There might be a form living creatures inevitably assume based on their living conditions.

The conditions on Earth and Forthorthe are similar. As a result, it was likely that similar creatures existed. Of course, there are likely exceptions, but I believe it's safe to assume that there a creatures that look the same on both planets. So from there, I decided that cats and dogs would exist. There's a chance they might have a pouch on their stomach for their children, or the color and pattern of their fur might be dramatically different, but as they were selective breed for the sake of pets, they would likely end up looking similar.

That person also appeared again, and once you've read this volume I believe you've gained a faint understanding of how the overall Forthorthe arc will go down. I believe it might be fun to compare your expectations to how the future volumes happen. Please look forwards to the development in the following volumes.

That's right, the other day I received several volumes of the Taiwan version. The newest of them was Volume 20. I was surprised to see that they were already at Volume 20, and what surprised me even more was that it came with a drama CD. It used the Japanese voices, but with a translated script. I wondered 'Is that really okay?', but according to my editor, S-kun, the sub culture following over there mostly understands Japanese. That was a surprise in its own. But it also means there might be some that read the Japanese directly. Hello, everyone from Taiwan. By the way, according to S-kun, the Korean version looks like it's about to overtake the Taiwanese version. So hello everyone from Korea, how is it going?"

Having my work read in different countries is a very rare experience. I'm interested in finding out what they like about this work. I'm sure there's a lot that's different in differing countries and cultures. I'm also curious about what character is most popular in the various countries. There might also be differences in how we experience the seasons. It's an interesting theme, so I wonder if there's a way to find out. For starters, maybe I should probe S-kun? (lol) I will do my best so that fans from other countries can enjoy this work as well.

There's one more thing I need to mention in regards to drama CDs. It's about the bonus drama CD attached to BOOKWALKER-san's digital edition. This was a first of attaching a drama CD to a digital edition, so they didn't know how many sales they could expect, there was an unease if they could keep do this as part of their business. But fortunately, they far exceeded the 'as long as we can sell this much' line, and there are talks of continuing to follow this format in the future.

During the end of March as I'm writing this afterword, it's been decided that on the digital edition of this volume, the drama CD that came with the physical volume 18, will be attached. While I can't go into details in this afterword, please visit the official sites of Hobby Japan and BOOKWALKER.

Personally, I would be happy if all four drama CDs were delivered. I've heard of a lot that missed buying the special edition of the physical books, so this is an excellent way of get the drama CD's to their hands.

Will this form of offering the drama CD's become more widespread in the future of light novels, and the subculture in its entirety I wonder. I believe spreading using this way will help reduce the local differences. That said, I'm sure there are those who want the CD itself, so the physical version itself would probably not be lost.

Lately one of the things I've been worrying about is that the world is changing too fast and our response is delayed. The best example of that is that we can't listen to the correct proportions of the readers' voices.

The majority of readers of light novels are middle and high students and it gradually reduces until there's only a few percentage reading light novels in their thirties. We know that people really peter out in their late twenties and their thirties from the questionnaires that come with related products. However, we're not able to pick up their voices. There's few who use the reader card that comes with the book, yet most of the voices from the internet are in their twenties.

For example, in connection to net bookshops using credit cards, the users are often past 20 years old. On social networking services or review sites, many conceal their age due to their viewpoint of wanting to protect their personal information. In that case, the age of the users are usually past their twenties. Moreover, as the people who actively read books and put up information about it on the net tend to buy a lot of books, the age groups ends up being higher.

So because of that, while we might be able to hear the voices of the readers from the internet, we can't hear the correct proportions. It is difficult to accurately know at what kind of rate, what each generation has to say.

We believe we have to do something about it, but it's difficult to make something right away. There's discussions on how to pick up the correct proportions of voices. So in the end, we'll need to rely on reader cards until some measures are taken.

It's ironic to rely on reader cards this highly informationized age, but at present it's our life line. Submitting the reader cards you have at hand won't just help this work, but the entire industry. We can especially learn what introduced the younger audience to light novels. That is something necessary for the continuation of the light novel culture and a very valuable lead. So please cooperate.

That's right, I have one bit of personal information to share. The label for a different publisher I wrote light novels for was ended due to operation issues, so I've gotten quite a lot of free time. Of course, losing a job is not good, so I am working on a new project. If I were to give a generic label to it, it's an adventure story. The main character isn't satisfied with the life provided for them, and leaves their familiar hometown to go on a journey. From a technical standpoint, it will have the same feel as Rokujouma. Starting simple, but revealing that there's a lot of complexity behind it. Because of various adult circumstances, I can't go on for long. I believe I'll be able to announce the details at some point, so please wait a while longer.

With that I've used up all of my pages, so I think I'll wrap it up here this time. Finally I'd like to give my usual thanks to everyone at the editing department who do their best, to Poco-san for the various illustrations, and to the readers who have joined me for eight years.

Then let us meet again in the afterword for volume 23.

March, 2016

Takehaya.

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